There are few things in aviation more nightmarish than an unsolved, major accident. When, on the night of 1 June 2009, an Air France Airbus A330-203 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean on its flight from Rio to Paris it was easy to feel that such a nightmare was about to unfold.
The plane went off the air with only a few cryptic ACARS messages being transmitted but not a word from the pilots. Although part of the wreckage was located relatively soon after the accident, there was no sign of the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder.
The search for those vital sources of information was re-launched earlier this year and with success! Both recorders were found and both yielded their secrets to investigators in spite of having been submerged at a depth of around 3000 meters for such a long time.
Although full analysis of the data will take more time, on 27 May the French Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA) published an update to its earlier preliminary reports, based on the data recovered from the recorders.
The update describes in a factual manner the chain of events that led to the accident while also presenting newly established facts.
This is a thought provoking story of the last minutes in life of a very advanced aircraft and its masters who seem to have lost touch with each other…
Download the latest report here.
Earlier BEA reports are available on EUROCONTROL’s SKYbrary here and here.
